Sick in Korean

Cough.....Cough....Weeze......

I've had a nagging cough for the past week and a half and it seems to never go away.  This past Thursday my hearing started to deteriorate for no reason.  Come on I'm only 23 and my hearing is going?  Feels as though there is some water in my ear that cannot get out.  On Friday, I decided enough was enough and get checked out.  This lead to me going to the hospital.  Hospital?  No, I wasn't dying but that is what you do in Korea.  If you have the smallest ache everyone tells you to go to the hospital.  There doesn't seem to be any Doctor offices here but hospitals.

So what is a trip to the Hospital like?
I walked in gave the desk my alien registration card and they told me to go to the internal medicine part of the hospital.  I handed this folder to the nurse and sat down.  She called me 패터릭님 Patrick-nim which I was confused but she pointed me over and I got the message.  They thought my first name was Patrick...haha  Anyway, after getting my heart rate checked she told me to wait out in the hall.  There were about 7 other grandparent aged people all sitting down waiting for their turn.  I'd have to say it was really quick just walking in and having them check me out.  Not 5 minutes later, the nurse calls my name and I head in to see the doctor.  Now I prepared how to describe my ailments in Korean to the doctor but I was surprised that his English was actually quite good.  He told me to get an x-ray, which I quickly found at the other side of the building, where 3 people were waiting for me.  1-2-3 I had 10 x-rays done. Another 5 minute wait and I was back sitting with the doctor.  He said that I have Bronchitis and an ear infection.  A couple of clicks in his computer and he sent me out with no further directions.  The nurse, at 1,000 miles per hour, says something to me in Korean.  Ugh I nodded and said I understood.  I wondered and came back.  I asked her to slow down and she spoke a little slower.  I figured out that I had to go to the cashier and pay.  $40 for the hospital fee (my insurance will knock that to $5) and I had to find the drug store.  There was a drug store in the hospital but I guess that is only for special people.  People kept saying outside there is a pharmacy.  Well outside there are 40 pharmacies and I didn't know that I could go to anyone of them.

About $30 of medicine

So the overall experience was interesting.  I'd say it was actually really easy and took approximately an hour to do something that would take well over an hour in the States and with insurance costs 1/10th the amount it would in the States.  Now I just need to really get over this sickness.